New Orleans could see fewer murders within six months, criminologist says

Police initiatives have come and gone over the years, but New Orleans' murder rate has remained frustratingly high. Now, the mastermind behind the city's new murder-reduction strategy says the city could be seeing fewer bodies on the ground within a matter of months.

During his State of the City address at the Mahalia Jackson Theater, Mayor Mitch Landrieu introduced the crime-fighting initiative "NOLA for Life."Ted Jackson, NOLA.com/ The Times-Picayune

Kennedy's ideas are the basis for a new component of Mayor Mitch Landrieu's "NOLA for Life" murder-reduction campaign.

Kennedy, who is the director of the Center for Crime Prevention and Control at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York, said the concept is simple: Law enforcement agencies should focus their efforts on the fraction -- 5 percent or so -- of the population that is committing murders, offering them incentives -- both carrots and sticks -- to change their ways.

The first step took place Thursday afternoon in an Orleans Parish courtroom. Landrieu, Police Superintendent Ronal Serpas, U.S. Attorney Jim Letten, District Attorney Leon Cannizzaro and others met behind closed doors with 40 of the city's most violent parolees and probationers.

The officials delivered a clear message: "We know who you are. We know who your friends are. We know where you go. We know everything about you," Landrieu recited after the meeting.

A murder victim's mother implored the group to think about the pain that affects victims' families, including their own.

Also attending the meeting were social service providers, Kennedy said. They offered the ex-cons a way out of a life of violence through GED classes, vocational training and other services. About half of the group signed up for services on the spot, Kennedy said.

The bigger message, he said, is that the full weight of state and federal law enforcement is prepared to pounce on gangs or associations at the next episode of violent gunfire. In short, one member's misconduct will cost the entire group in the form of an onslaught of federal and state law enforcement pressure.

"The point is to make it clear that the odds have changed so people put their guns down," Kennedy told the audience at Loyola. "The point here is to reverse the peer pressure so that the group will police itself."

An inordinate share of crime can be traced to a few people, Kennedy said. Even though gangs or criminal groups make up only a fraction of the population, they are associated with more than 75 percent of cities' serious violence, he said.

"We need to stop stopping people for no good reason and focus on the key players," he said.

The approach calls for police to prioritize actions against known key violent offenders, rather than focus on overall arrest rates, and in turn, reduce mass incarceration. The model has proved successful in cities like Boston, Cincinnati and Los Angeles, Kennedy said. Although murders are up in Chicago overall, certain neighborhoods where the program was implemented have seen success, he said.

"We think the violence is about money, and hardly any of it is," Kennedy said. "It's overwhelmingly about the street code."

That "street code" dictates that disrespect should be answered with violence, that groups should not fear death or prison and that there will be no "snitching." While that code drives violence in neighborhoods across America, it is "unquestionably" pervasive in New Orleans, Kennedy said.

Confronted with a community's silence after a murder, Kennedy said, police tend to think, "Nobody's saying anything because everybody's living off drug money." However, what really drives the "no snitching" rule is people's lack of faith in authorities because they are used to being racially profiled and treated poorly by cops, he said.

"There is a toxic schism between the community and law enforcement," he said.

That's where, hopefully, the new federal consent decree calling for reform of the New Orleans Police Department could boost the department's standing within the community and overcome the "street code," Kennedy said. He pointed to Los Angeles and Cincinnati as cities where sweeping police reforms aided in reducing homicide rates.

"I think if you do it right, they reinforce each other," he said.

In New Orleans, Kennedy noted, officials have shown overwhelming support for the new strategy. Even NOPD officers have been supportive of the approach.

"They're placing it as an unquestioned priority," he said. "They mean it."